I've been writing a short story for about a year. The story is a coming of age story about a kid stuck in a small town where options are limited and he is forced to try and find a way out to progress. I've written the story three different ways and still can't seem to find out what is missing and why the story isn't working. I've recently reread the story and I feel like the problem is characterization. Upon reading the story the characters just don't seem real enough to me, I'm wondering what would help them become real and what can do?
I love creating characters, so hopefully my suggestions will be helpful to you. -Focus on your character's background. Really come up with fine details. You might not address these details in your story, but creating them will help solidify your character and give them a past, present, and possible future. -What is your character's personality? Psychological traits? How would they react to things? Does their reaction match their personality? I have a link to a perfect, organized list of the different components of a charater. It's actually for character analysis, but I use it for creating characters because it tells me and gives me examples of many different ideas to consider when creating a character. And because it is a character analysis guide, I know that if someone were to analyze my characters, they'd have something interesting to analyze. If you would like the link to this, PM me. I'll be happy to give it to you.
